This Cauliflower Rice Recipe is a delicious vegan/vegetarian main dish for dinner. Even better, it’s the perfect weeknight meal as it’s done in only 20 minutes.
If you read Primavera Kitchen often, you know that I’m all about one-pan/skillet recipes. I have lots of these types of recipes on my blog, and the most popular recipes are Rice with Mushroom and Asparagus, Asparagus Sweet Potato Chicken Skillet, and Ground Beef Zucchini Sweet Potato Skillet. Why do I love skillet recipes? Well, the answer is so simple: it’s easy and quick to make, and clean up is a breeze. For a busy mom like me, these three points are very important when I’m cooking.
I also like the fact that you can always sneak some vegetables into these skillet recipes. Don’t you agree? I love adding some asparagus, sweet potato, broccoli, green beans, and, of course, cauliflower. This one is great because it’s so versatile and goes well with everything. Cauliflower rice is my thing at the moment.
At my local grocery store, I can now find cauliflower rice that’s ready to cook. It’s so convenient and cuts my time in half when I’m cooking with cauliflower. However, I know that it’s not very easy to find cauliflower rice everywhere. So, on the instructions below, I explained how to make your own cauliflower rice. And if you love cauliflower like me, I have lots of cauliflower recipes here, like this Cauliflower Rice made with zucchini.
- Lots of mushrooms and fresh spinach are the key to making the best cauliflower rice. I just think this combo works really well and adds more flavor to your dish.
- You’ll also need onions, celery, and garlic.
- And of course, cauliflower, which will turn into a “rice-like texture,” and will be the base for this recipe.
This Cauliflower Rice Recipe is made with all these simple ingredients that the whole family will enjoy, and more importantly, these are all great veggies for your body.
- Prepare your cauliflower rice and vegetables. Set aside.
- In a large skillet, add olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and celery and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Then add in the garlic for 30 more seconds.
- Add the mushroom and sauté until it’s cooked through. You can buy the mushrooms pre-sliced or slice your own. Baby bellas are a great mushroom to use.
- Add the raw cauliflower rice, the vegetable broth, and soy sauce. Allow the cauliflower rice to absorb the vegetable broth. Cook until it is soft, but not mushy.
- Add spinach and cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley before serving. Enjoy!
I have to say that this Cauliflower Rice Recipe is delicious on its own. So if you are a vegetarian or vegan, this is the perfect dinner recipe for you. But if you don’t follow a vegetarian or vegan diet/lifestyle, you can pair this dish with some delicious salmon, chicken, or even boiled eggs. Below I listed my favourite seafood and chicken to go with this recipe:
- Garlic Butter Salmon in Foil: You only need 20-25 minutes to make this delicious salmon recipe. It’s an ultra-easy dinner to make during your busy weeknights.
- Garlic Butter Rainbow Trout in Foil: This recipe is ultra-easy to make, and it only requires 4 ingredients.
- Roasted Lemon Chicken Legs: This is full of flavors of garlic, lemon, and herbs, and it is perfect for a quick and delicious meal.
- Rosemary Lemon Roasted Chicken Breasts: Fresh rosemary, lemon juice, and garlic are three simple yet flavorful ingredients that create this beautiful chicken recipe.
I also can’t forget to mention this recipe is paleo, Whole30, and low-carb! Mm… It’s so good! Hope you enjoy this Mushroom Cauliflower Rice Skillet and give it a try.
If you are on Whole30 or if you follow gluten-free and paleo diets, you should use coconut aminos to make this recipe since soy sauce contains gluten and it’s not allowed on Whole30. I highly recommend this one from Coconut Secret because it’s gluten-free, organic, and has 70% less sodium than soy sauce. It’s also vegan and non-GMO. They’re affordable, delicious, and last a lot. You can get yours on Amazon easily here or at any natural/organic store.
To keep this riced cauliflower recipe from being soggy, simply cook it less. The longer the cauliflower is cooked in the skillet, the softer it becomes. If you’re worried about the cauliflower being too soggy, you can always cook it up in advance, set it aside, and then add it to the recipe at the end.
Also, don’t cover the pan when you’re cooking the rice to avoid steaming it. When you steam the cauliflower, it makes the cauliflower mushy, and it can even be watery. Stir-frying over medium-high heat is best.
It is! While it’s super convenient to purchase pre-made frozen cauliflower, ricing it yourself at home isn’t too difficult and costs a fraction of store-bought.
All you have to do is wash and thoroughly dry your head of cauliflower, cut the cauliflower into florets (you can also chop it if you prefer), and then add them to the food processor and pulse them until they’re of rice consistency. You might need to do this in batches, depending on the size of your food processor.
If you don’t have a food processor, not to worry, you can grate the cauliflower head through a cheese grater (also known as a box grater) or use a knife and finely cut up the cauliflower. It should be the size of traditional rice grains.
When your cauliflower is totally chopped, you can press any excess moisture from the rice by placing the cauliflower rice on a large paper towel or cheesecloth and squeezing any water or excess moisture from it. It’s an extra step, but if you have time, please do it.
Cauliflower rice doesn’t have a strong taste to it. It is comparable to cabbage, but cauliflower will take on the taste of whatever you season it with. That’s why it’s so great to cook with cauliflower. You can add lots of fresh herbs and spices to add more flavor to your dish, and it can also be a base for stir-fries and any other dish you would make with regular rice.
Meal Prep Tips
- Make sure to store all your portions into an airtight container. I use glass containers has they don’t hold onto any smells and are easier to clean.
- Be sure to keep the meals refrigerated until you’re ready to eat.
- This meal prep will last for up to 4 days when properly stored.
- I do not recommend you try and freeze this recipe. The texture of the mushrooms especially will not be ideal when thawed. However, since this skillet recipe only takes 20 minutes to make, you can easily and quickly whip this up whenever you’d like!
- Cauliflower Rice: It is an easy Whole30, low-carb, and one-pan dinner that it’s flavored with homemade pesto and has lots of Italian sausages. It’s ready in less than 20 minutes. You can replace the sauce with sweet potato to make it vegan.
- Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower Rice: Super-easy and versatile side dish that goes with almost everything. It’s roasted for about 20 minutes, and it’s super flavorful with lots of olive oil, garlic, and herbs.
- Easy Cauliflower Fried Rice: One of my favorite low-carb fried rice versions. It’s ready in no time, and it’s loaded with veggies.
- Cauliflower Rice Recipe: Another one-pot meal that you can make in less than 30 minutes.
Cauliflower Rice with Mushrooms
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 stick celery sliced
- ½ cup onion chopped
- 1 big garlic clove minced
- 3 cups mushrooms sliced
- 14 oz. cauliflower rice (see instructions below on how to make the cauliflower rice)
- 1/3 cup organic vegetable broth
- Soy sauce to taste For Whole30 or gluten free diets, use Coconut Aminos. it's a soy sauce alternative.
- 2 cups spinach
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- Pulse the cauliflower florets in a food processor for about 25-30 seconds until it’s a rice-like consistency. Set aside.
- In a large skillet add olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and celery and cook until tender about 5 minutes.
- Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add mushroom and sauté until it’s cooked through.
- Add the cauliflower rice, the vegetable broth, and soy sauce. Allow the cauliflower rice to absorb the vegetable broth. Cook until it is soft, but not mushy.
- Add spinach and cook for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I loved this!! I skipped the celery because I didn’t have any and used frozen cauliflower rice and a little extra soy sauce. I added cooked shrimp at the end just long enough to warm it up. Super yummy dinner and warmed up well for lunch.
Yes the leftover warms up well for lunch. Happy you liked this recipe 😉
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This was SO delicious! I used your recipe as a base–cuz I never would have thought to add mushrooms and spinach to cauliflower rice–and made a few additions: broccoli florets, asparagus, cabbage and ground ginger. I used a GENEROUS portion of coconut aminos along with my salt and pepper and it was PERFECT for my meal prepping for the upcoming week! I’ll be eating it with several meats over the week: beef barbacoa, a keto fish recipe, and some lemon pepper chicken. It’ll be the perfect accompaniment to each of those! Thank you so much for sharing this delish recipe!
I’m so glad you loved it! Thanks so much for taking the time to share this review. 🙂
Cauliflower “rice” is a genius idea!!! Since cauliflower and mushrooms are two of my favorite foods I’ll rush to make this dish tonight! Thanks
Awesome! Happy to hear that 😉
gotta admit i was skeptical that it was going to be kind of bland. I was sooo wrong!!! I didnt use olive oil i just use broth to cook the onions and celery and used frozen cauliflower. I also thru in some frozen peas just to have more veggies 😉 I also used lemon pepper and garlic salt. SOOOOO GOOD!!!!!!!
Awesome 😉
This didn’t have much flavor to me. Seemed rather bland. I tried adding other seasoning as well.
I really wanted to like it but I added so much soy sauce, and still very little flavor. Added so much soy sauce I was worried about the salt content. My husband took the first bite and said it tasted “like dirt.” I told him mushrooms are earthy but then I took a bite. I tried to freshen up the flavor with some lemon, but it didn’t really help.
SO sorry to hear that. Did you use the right about about cauliflower rice? If you use more than 14oz./400g of cauliflower rice, the recipe might be flavourless since the amount of ingredients listed are for only 400g or 14oz of cauliflower rice.
so tasty rice recipe i loved it, so keep posting.
Awesome!
Looks delicious! Just want to point out that the gluten free alternative to soy sauce is tamari, not teriyaki. 🙂
Thanks a lot for pointing this typo out. Yes it’s definitely tamari.
I was searching for a unique riced cauliflower recipe and stumbled upon this one.
Made it for dinner and topped it off with one medium diced chicken breast that I marinated in soy sauce. My goodness, this is fantastic!!
I’m going to make this quite often, will change out toppings with shrimp, salmon, tuna, tempeh, hard boiled egg, etc. I put about two and a half tablespoons (recipe says “to taste”) of high quality (no preservatives added) soy sauce and my results were just outstanding, so delicious.
I buy frozen riced cauliflower in a 12oz bag and let it partially thaw prior to cooking. Worked great in this meal. Thank you so much Olivia for this amazing recipe. I’ll be trying out some of your other concoctions for sure!
You’re very welcome! Happy you liked it!
Just made this today and it was amazing! I used arugula and kale as that is what I had on hand. My hubby piled it on his eggs (which NEVER happens) and he liked it as well. Thanks for sharing!
THat’s amazing! So happy to hear that 😉
DIdn’t love this too bland. I roasted some eggplant, added a sauteed red pepper and tomato sauce with italian seasoning to rescue it. Just not our thing I guess
I am new to this cooking world but really want to try this recipe. Maybe it’s a bit silly to ask this, but when you say 3 cups of mushrooms, does that mean 3 cups of mushrooms before you slice them or 3 cups of sliced mushrooms? Sorry for my silly question, all the best 🙂
Thanks for your question. It’s 3 cups of sliced mushrooms.
This was really good! The only thing I did different was I added some Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes because I love some spice 🙂 We aren’t really fans of mushrooms but we’ve been trying to eat them more because they are so good for you. I’ll be making this again!
That’s amazing. I’m so happy you like this recipe even though you’re not a fan of mushroom!
Can I use frozen spinach in place of fresh? If so, how much?
Sorry but I think it won’t work well because it will release a lot of water.
Tried this recipe last night. Very good, easy, quick. I did not have spinach, so used shredded cabbage. Yum!
That’s a great idea to use shredded cabbage! Love it!
This will go on repeat at my house! Very good! I used frozen/thawed/squeezed cauliflower rice and it was delicious!
Perfect. Happy to hear that!
I had to make an account on here just so I could comment on this recipe. I read the comments and therefore didn’t follow the recipe to a tee-I added Miso and fresh ginger to this along with asparagus just to get some added veggies and it was fantastic! This is definitely something I plan on repeating regularly. Thank you!!!
Glad you liked it!
My husband, my son both loved this. Gave this recipe to my sister-in-law. She thought it would be good. Love all your recipes.
Thank you so much. Happy you liked it!
Can I use frozen riced cauliflower instead of fresh one?
yes you can.